Elastilon is a permanently elastic, soft underlay for hardwood floors with excellent thermal and acoustic characteristics.It is capable of turning a concrete slab into a hardwood floor in no time at all. From 50% to 70% faster than traditional methods!

Quick Highlights:- Ideal for the floating applications of solid and engineered wood floors.- Can be used over wood subfloors and concrete (not recommended for below-grade installations)- Promotes continuous tension across the boards and helps eliminate gapping and open seams.- This unique adhesive underlayment system allows for quicker, easy installations.

Just finished the installation. Here's our one big mistake (you should avoid this).

We would lay 2-3 rows of wood, then pull out the film from underneath the newly-laid rows. We were being cautious when pulling out the film….we didn't want to pull it too far and expose the sticky part (would mess up installation of the next board). So we pulled it out to where we thought the edge of the board was (a guess). Apparently our guesses weren't good and we were leaving too much film under the boards we had just laid. By the time we got to the far side of the room, the error had accumulated, so we had film under many rows (how many?) even though we continued to pull it each time after 3 rows were layed. We just weren't pulling it out far enough. We had a hell of a time pulling the film out at the very end because it extended under so many boards. It took two big guys pulling with everything we had to get it out, with another two guys pulling the boards up (slightly).

Recommend you do this: Use a tape measure to measure how far out you've pulled the film. In other words, before you pull the next section out, mark it with a sharpie marker along the board, then pull and measure the distance from your mark back to the boards you just layed. Should be 5 inches (one board) or 10 inches (two boards) etc. That way you don't get a build-up of film left under the boards. And, now that I think of it, it would probably help prevent pulling the film out too far.

The Elastilon product made installing my Hickory hand-scraped flooing over a concrete pad fast and easy. The product is rather expensive, but the extra cost was certainly worth the price, when compared with the time and effort I have expended installing the wood floor using a nailer on the other two levels of the house. The only issue I had was when I accidentally pinched the 'film' between two boards, and it caused the film to tear as I pulled it out from underneath a portion of flooring. Had to pull up the floor a little ways back to grab the torn portion and even it out. If you work carefully, this product makes installation fast and looks great!

Lay down the underlayment lap 1-2 inches up walls. peel back slip sheet, lay first course, top nail at walls so that baseboard/shoe covers nails. Continue laying flooring till complete, peeling slip sheet as each course is installed. Clamp each board tightly as you go. I set each board into underlayment adhesive with rubber mallet as I go. Perfect for mixed sub floors ie. wood/concrete transitions, etc. Produces a quality floating floor that is tight, quiet which is quick and easy to install.

This is an excellent product! I had my reservations before using it, because it almost looked too easy. I thought there had to be a catch. However, I will never use anything else other than Elastilon to install flooring from this point on. I am using it to install tongue and groove bamboo over concrete. It is very easy to work with, and allows you to line up the boards before sticking them to the floor. There is no time rush as with spreading adhesives. There isn't really a downside that I can think of. Some of the reviews I read said that the surface covering that you peel back rips and tears. I did not have this happen at all, and I have pulled on it pretty hard particularly near door frames, and when finishing a row up against a wall. I have had the flooring in for about a month so far, and the boards are still tight together, without any noticeable gaps developing.

Pro's (short list): Easy to roll the stuff out over your floor. You don't have to chemically prep your floor, in fact minimal prep is needed to the concrete floor. Just scraped down anything sticking up but even glue left from carpet is fine and doesn't affect the final result. Super soft to touch and for noise. Had hardwoods right on concrete and they are so loud, these are remarkably quiet. Softer on your knees when sliding around on the floor.

Con's (long list): First thing you must have is a square surface to get those first three rows locked in place. If you don't have a square surface make one, glue 3 rows of boards together and then slide against the wall with shims. Learned the hard way on the first room. Let the 3 rows set up over night.Second thing, plastic constantly rips or catches between tounge and groove and rips creating small areas that do not adhere to the elastilon. Recommend a razor knife and guide the rip to a point by cutting in a triangle fashion.Third thing, BIGGIE, this product does not work well with warped boards that are side to side. Traditional nail guns you can nail the warps out by tacking them to the ground elastilon doesn't afford you that benefit. The long boards are the primary issue, out of the 1500 square foot great room we ended up with 9 bundles of mostly long boards that wouldn't work. In the 500 square foot room we ended up with 4 bundles that wouldn't work. We had another 500 square foot room we wanted to do but with so much wood that wouldn't work we are not able to... Moral of the story plan for 20% shrinkage and you may end up with extra...

Summary: After 2000 squarefoot I finally understand how the product works and how to lay it properly with minimal issues. Super happy with final result just a pain in the butt to do. Make this your last option.

We pulled up carpeting in a family room 20 x 21 ft. Underneath was a concrete floor. The room echoed very badly. We wanted to avoid having to put in a subfloor as that would cause a lot of problems with a raised floor. We did some research online and talked with several service providers at Lumber Liquidators. They all agreed this Elastilon would solve all our problems. They were very helpful in explaining how to use it. Well now we have this beautiful hardwood floor in our family room and it is great. the elastilon provided some cushion and sound barrier. I would definitely use this again.

Unfortunately not, (it is a pad) and needs to be installed over a solid/firm surface.You can find complete installation instructions on the product page by clicking on: the "Click here" to read the complete installation instructions..Thank you for writing in.

The floor must be flat to within .08 inch over 8 ft (2mm over 2.5m)You can find complete installation instructions on the product page by clicking on the Click here to read the complete installation instructions.Thank you for writing in..

All of our natural flooring products are recommended for interior use only and designed to be installed in climate controlled environment.Being a natural product it will be subject to the effects of temperature and humidity. If proper heat and humidity levels are not maintained your flooring may shift, shrink, expand, gap or buckle. Thank you for your inquiry.

Answered on 9/1/2014 by cc-2

Q:

Is hardwood the only flooring you can install over Elastilon, or can you also use laminate and/or tile?

Do you see an issue with floating your Engineered 1/2" x 5" Tobacco Road Acacia Handscraped over a Gypecrete radiant floor using the Elastilon product? Would this be a better alternative to using your HDF core product of this same wood and float it on a normal pad? Will the Elastilon product affect heat output.

We have a ton of oak flooring left over from our build that we wanted to use in the basement. It is below grade. Can this product be used in combination with other products for putting solid hardwood flooring into our basement?

We purchased solid hardwood Santos Mahogany floors from Lumber Liquidators and installed them over a concrete slab subfloor using Elastilon. Look beautiful BUT the squeak terribly. What are the possible reasons and what have others found/

Sub floor could have low spots. Please call our Customer Service Dept. @ (800) 366-4204 for help with this question. Thank you for your inquiry.

Answered on 4/9/2014 by cc-3

Q:

Hi, we are looking to install 3/4" x 8" solid acacia hardwood, prefinished over a concrete floor. An acoustic barrier is required in the building. Will this product work to install that specific wood? We are nervous the 8" wide planks are too wide to "float" over concrete..

Yes Elastilon can be used for 8" wide boards if they are well acclimated to the room (which they should be in any installation) and they are flat, straight boards. Follow the Elastilon instructions carefully as well as the flooring manufacturers guides.